Hate Complex
by LaTeFaTe800
Summary: Sollux Captor is your typical university student, he has always been able to easily distinguish people as friends or enemies... until he meets an infuriating, young man by the name of Eridan Ampora; who Sollux, for some reason, just can't bring himself to hate.
1. Chapter 1

There's a loud, obnoxious banging sound resonating through the room and my eyes shoot open in surprise and annoyance. It takes a few seconds for my vision to clear up since my eyes were trying to accept that I'm no longer in sweet slumber; not even giving one shit about putting on my glasses, I groggily rush to my door, swinging it open like a madman. My eyes focus on the short, dark figure standing in my door frame.

"...KK?"

"Who the fuck else do you think it is?! ...Just, let me in…"

It was definitely Karkat. I move aside from the door, letting the drenched boy inside my dorm room. Oh, it must have been raining because KK is soaked.

I close the door behind him and lock it back up.

"Tho… why were you out tho late, huh? And while it'th raining-" I am cut off when Karkat spoke in a harsh tone,

"Well that's a fucking hilarious story! You see, my dipshit roommate, of whom I just fucking met today, locked me out of my dorm room! I forgot my keys in my car so I ran outside, in the pouring rain, to go get them. And SURPRISE! Turns out I left them at John's…"

"Woah, man, chill out. Did you try knocking until he woke up?" I reply in an attempt to calm down this short ball of rage, but to no avail.

"Oh, heeey, I never thought of that! WHY DON'T I GO FUCKING TRY IT OUT!?

Of course I tried that, Sollux! That bastard didn't answer the door even after I was about to bash it down, screaming. I certainly woke up all of the guys in the other rooms, but not this bulge muncher!"

He always does this… Not get locked out of his room, but he always gets so carried away with his emotions. Especially anger, he's like a small, ticking time bomb, I swear… I let out an irritated sigh.

"Ok, ok, I'm thorry, that thucks pretty hard, KK. Now, you're cold and wet, why don't you go take a shower?" I offer him a shower to warm up and blow off some steam.

He doesn't say anything, but nods, taking off his shoes. I watch him as he heads toward my bathroom.

"Thanks, Sollux…" He speaks in a quiet, but still slightly irritated voice. Poor guy must be exhausted…

Speaking of which, I decide to take my tired ass back to bed.

I glance at the clock as I'm making my way back to my bedroom. It's 1:23 in the morning. Damn it's late… or early… I don't really know, I'm too tired to think about this shit. I snuggle back into my bed where I was sleeping so sound not too long ago.

It feels so nice to lay back down. I'm caressed by the sweet relaxation of my consciousness fading and I close my eyes, drifting off into bliss.


	2. Chapter 2

-BEEP BEEP BEEP-

I am rudely awoken, once again, but this time the obnoxious noise is emiting from my alarm clock. I spring out of my bed and slam the snooze button on my alarm, causing the room to grow silent; relieved, I plop back onto my bed, covering my head with the sheets...

* * *

…BEEP BEEP BEEP

Some time has passed and there goes my alarm again.

"Yeah, yeah, I hear 'ya! Beep, beep, fuckin' beep!" I speak to my alarm as if it's a whining child and rise from my bed, once again, to turn the alarm off. My eyes shift to the bed on the other side of my small room, there's no Karkat snuggled up under the sheets but it is rather unkempt. He must be up already.

I then glance at the time, it's 8:30… much later than I expected. Shit, I should get moving! I grab my multi-colored glasses from off my dresser and slide them on my face, then rummage through drawers, grabbing different articles of clothing before making my way to the bathroom.

I start up the water and, while waiting for it to heat up, start to strip myself of my clothing. While I'm in the process of doing so, Karkat opens the door.

"Shit-!" I'm caught off guard and almost fall over from surprise, my arms caught in my half removed shirt.

"KK what the hell-"

"I'm heading out now; thanks for letting me stay here last night. See you later."

Karkat leaves without saying anything else, closing the bathroom door behind him.

"..." That was really weird; he's been acting strange… Oh well, he'll probably tell me sooner or later.

I return to disrobing then step into the shower.

* * *

I blink my eyes open, waking up to the sound of shuffling paper and the moving of chairs. In a daze, I look around trying to establish where I am when I hear a voice.

"Hey, you alright? W-wake up, class is ov-ver."

"Hnn…?" What? Oh, damnit, I must've fallen asleep during the lecture.

I raise my head to meet this stranger's gaze. He's much closer than I had initially thought; I'm about to move back until I notice this guy's eyes. Maybe it's because I'm still super tired but I'm caught in kind of a trance, staring deeply into these eyes. They're… so pretty. Such a lovely brown… Wait, what!? I snap myself out of it and swiftly pull my gaze away from his, bringing my head back from the uncomfortably close distance we had between us.

"Uum…" He lets out an embarrassed noise as he shifts his eyes to the floor.

"Oh, I'm thorry… It theemth I am thtill a bit thpathey." I try to defeat the awkwardness, but it didn't seem to work too well.

"O-okay… W-well, I should be gettin' to my next class so... See you later."

He awkwardly shuffles out of the room.

"...Later…" I mumble in half response.

He probably thinks I'm some kind of idiot… Oh well.


	3. Chapter 3

The cold sensation of water splashes across my face. I cup my hands several times, filling them with water and throwing it on my face to wake me up; it does it's job and is quite refreshing as well. Since I fell asleep earlier, I thought I'd head back to my dorm room and wake myself up a bit. I don't have any other classes today, so I don't need to worry about rushing or anything but I do want to head to the lunch hall in a bit to see my friends and maybe even find out what's up with Karkat. I reach for a small towel next to me and bring it to my face, patting it dry.

My phone then buzzes on my ass, causing me to flinch a little before pulling it out of my back pocket. Looks like it's a message from Feferi, a close friend of mine and also one of my former girlfriends.

CC: ) (-EY Sollux! We're waiting for you! Get your bubble butt over here~

It sounds like they're already at the lunch hall, waiting for me. I send a text in reply.

TA: Ok, iim iin my dorm 2o iit wiill ju2t be a couple miinute2. 2ee you 2oon.

I slide my phone back into my pocket and exit my room, quickly grabbing my jacket beforehand.

It takes me approximately 10 minutes to walk over to the university and make my way to the lunch hall. There are copious circular tables filling the large room, the bustle of people makes hearing anything difficult; but it doesn't take long before I hear the shouts of a bubbly voice calling out to me.

"HEEEEEEEY! Sol! Over here!"

I turn in the direction of the embarrassing calls and see Feferi, flailing her arms dramatically; my face warms up with all the stares I'm getting as I walk over to the table where Feferi and four others sit.

"It's about time you showed up! Jeez!" Feferi is as lively as ever, I see.

And as impatient as ever, too.

"Well, I'm thorry for taking a little longer than ten minuteth to get here, your highneth." I bow down a little before the All-Mighty Feferi, to tease her.

"Oh, shush up, you!" Feferi nudges me slightly with her elbow before pulling me into a hug. As Fef squeezes me, my eyes travel to the others sitting down at the table,

I scan over the familiar faces of John, Terezi, Dave, and Aradia who seems to be glaring at me. Fef then releases me from her air-tight grasp and plops back onto her seat. I might as well sit down too; I walk over to the empty seat next to where Karkat usually sits. Where the hell is he anyway?

"Hey, guyth, have you theen KK?"

"Karkles? I haven't smelt him today, actually…" Terezi sits there, sniffing away in attempts to catch Karkat's scent.

"Terezi, you're such a dork. Could you really find him like that?" Dave, who has his arm around Terezi, questions the blind girl's method.

"Duh! Of course I could! That's how I tell where you guys are!" Terezi then turns her head to face Strider and she sniffs his neck.

"Yep! You smell just like cherries! I could easily smell you out in a crowd!"

She makes a snarky grin and Dave smirks back.

Disregarding these two and their flirtatious antics, I get back to the initial problem.

"Tho… yeah, he wath locked out of hith room latht night tho he thtayed over at my plathe, leaving abruptly thith morning…"

I'm actually kind of worried about him, he was acting rather strange.

I glance over to John who is wearing quite the expression; his eyes are glued to the table and his face is slightly flushed as he fiddles with his hands.

"Is that so?" he replies, quietly, "how late was it when he came over?"

Wow, how suspicious can this kid look?

"Around 1:00 in the morning or thomething like that. Why?"

"Oh, no reason really." His face grows even more pink.

This is kind of amusing. Perhaps I'll pry a bit more out of John just for fun, even though I'm also quite curious as to why Karkat was out so late last night.

"Did you thee him latht night?" I question the suspicious boy.

"What? Well… yeah. He came over and we hung out for a bit." John averts his eyes the whole time he speaks.

The corners of my mouth rise into a kind of smirk.

"Mhmm, and why did he get home tho late?" I have a pretty good idea why but I want to hear him say it.

John shrinks down in his seat, face painted crimson, and timidly opens his mouth,

"U-um…" Before he could reply, someone drops their lunch tray on the table and sits down next to me.

"What the fuck are you guys going on about?" Surprise, it's Karkat.

"Oh, nothing really. It'th nithe to thee you too, KK, where the hell have you been?"

I reply.

"What do you mean? I was in class until, like, five fucking minutes ago and then grabbed lunch. But you never quite answered my question when I asked,

'what the fuck are you guys going on about?'" Karkat is obviously suspicious about the conversation being held between John and I; he glimpses at John, who is still wearing that flustered expression. Karkat's face draws red in response.

Ok, yeah, now I definitely know what happened.

The three of us don't speak, just exchange awkward glances. I open my mouth to break the silence when I'm interrupted.

"Oh! I almost forgot!" Feferi acclaims and runs over, grabbing both my hands to pull me out of my seat.

"There's someone I want you to meet!"


	4. Chapter 4

"There's someone I want you to meet!"

She cheerfully begins pulling me across the entire cafeteria; this is embarrassing but I'm kind of relieved that I'm out of that awkward situation.

Wait, she wants me to meet someone?

Who?

Where are we headed, anyway?

It's difficult to match up our steps as we practically run through masses of tables and people; I'm dragged away from the lunch hall and into a long hallway, lined with doors.

"FF! Where are we going?" I question, impatiently.

"To the library!" She doesn't slow her pace as she answers me.

The library? Okay…

We soon come to a stop and Feferi releases my hand, facing the entrance doors to the library.

She opens up one door, gesturing that I enter and says,

"Come on! This is where he hangs out in between classes."

"...Okay." I reply, kind of reluctantly and walk through the open door. Feferi follows closely behind, pushing on my back to direct me.

My eyes scan my surroundings in the library, which I hardly visit.

There are some girls sitting in a circle, chatting quietly, coffee in their hands; also a few people walking around, looking through the large selection of reading material.

There's hardly anyone in here, actually.

A few titles on the shelves catch my eye, but Feferi continues pushing me towards the far end of the library: a small loft kind of area, seemingly vacant… except for one person who lounges in a chair, reading a book.

...He seems oddly familiar; have I seen him somewhere before?

His dark brown hair is slicked back and has a blonde stripe down the front. He sits there reading attentively through his large, hipster glasses; everything he's wearing, actually, just screams hipster. But I can't quite remember where I've seen him before…

It isn't until then that I notice we are heading toward the lonely boy in the corner.

So is this the guy? The one who Fef wants me to meet?

It seems to be so as Feferi takes her hands off my back, grabbing my hand instead, to lead me to this strange boy. Her voice rings out in the almost silent library,

"Eridan!"

The boy, slightly startled, pulls his attention from the book he was reading and directs his gaze to Feferi and I, standing before him.

I stare, watching as his charming face brightens and the corners of his mouth rise into a pleasant smile.

There's a sudden tightness that runs through my chest and I look away.

...What the hell was that...? Just now...

I hear him rise from the couch, place his book on the nearby table and then hear the sound of footsteps treading toward Fef and I. When I look back, him and Fef are hugging tightly.

"It's good to see you again, Fef." He speaks in a kind of wavy accent that I know I've heard before. Seriously, who are you?

As I'm lost in thought the two of them engage in conversation, reminiscing… I think.

I stand and stare at this guy, contemplating.

So his name is Eridan, he's a loner/ hipster who hangs out at the library, and he's friends with Feferi… Hmm, perhaps…

"... Sollux." The sound of my name rings out, catching my attention and blowing away my dazed thoughts.

I focus back to Feferi and Eridan, both staring at me. Shit. They probably said something important...ish.

"...What?" I blurt out, not knowing what to say since I didn't hear them in the first place. They probably think I'm lovestruck or something stupid.

"Um… I said: Sollux, this is my friend since childhood, Eridan." Feferi says, slightly awkwardly. Probably because she had to repeat herself since I was spacing again, like an idiot.

"Right, thorry." I stretch out my arm and present my hand to Eridan.

Instead of shaking my hand, he ignores my gesture and opens his mouth,

"Sollux… Sollux Captor? Fef, is this the guy you're datin'?" His voice is stern with no affable qualities, like before.

"What? No." I say reflexively. But I'm ignored by him as he watches Feferi for an answer.

"Well, we were for a little while… But that's in the past, now we're just friends." Feferi clears up the misunderstanding quickly, but this guy doesn't seem at all pleased.

"Mhm…" He lets out a vexed breath.

The fuck? What's his deal?

"I'm thorry, but do you have thome kind of problem?" There goes my composure, out the window.

"Perhaps I do; I'm just surprised that Fef w-would date someone like you."

This snarky attitude of his is starting to piss me off.

"The hell ith that thuppothed to mean?" I question this asshole while slowly approaching him.

"Wait, guys, please don't argue." Feferi steps in between us.

I look at Feferi then back to Eridan, scowling at him before breathing out an aggravated sigh.

"Alright… thorry FF." I say while backing off a bit. I don't want to start a petty fight over something so trivial, especially with someone Feferi really wanted me to meet.

"I should probably get going then," I turn slightly, "You coming, FF?"

"No, actually. I think I'll stay here and talk with Eridan for a bit." She replies.

"Okay.." I start walking away but stop to say,

"It wath a pleasure meeting you." Of course I'm being sarcastic, but at least I said it.

I continue walking down to the front of the library, leaving Eridan and Feferi behind. Once I reach the library doors I look back, only for a moment, to see the two of them in the far corner disputing, it seems.

The hell is that guy's problem?


End file.
